2000 Global Games: Sports, Politics, and Society

The Sydney 2000 Olympic games will convene against the backdrop of ongoing revelations of International Olympic Committee corruption and efforts to reform itself. Historic adversaries -- Japan and Korea -- will co-host the 2002 World Cup soccer finals. In the U.S., controversy over the impact of Title IX persists in the aftermath of the U.S. Women's Soccer Team World Cup victory. Through the prisms of international relations, social history, economics, anthropology, human rights, cultural studies, the arts, and science, EPIIC's sixteenth annual symposium provided a critical, comparative insight into sport and international athletic competition.

What is the historical interplay of ideology, politics, and athletics? In the context of the political use and abuse of sport, what are the relationships between sport and foreign and domestic policies, from the massacre at the 1972 Munich Olympics to the recent U.S.-Iran wrestling competition? This symposium also explored sport in the context of social integration. How do sports influence, and how are they influenced by, identity, nationalism, class, race, ethnicity, gender, and religion? EPIIC considered the politics of race and the use of sport as racial competition, from South Africa to the Caribbean.

Among other issues addressed were: the global economics of sport, including global capitalism, international marketing, labor relations, and corruption; athletic talent migration; the potential for enhancement or "dehumanization" through genetic engineering and hormonal manipulation; the global diffusion of Western modern sports and the impact on indigenous traditions; and the roles of media and popular culture.

Finally, we were pleased to award Dr. Jean Mayer Global Citizenship Awards to Dr. Richard Lapchick, Director of the Center for the Study of Sport in Society at Northeastern University, U.S. Representative Patsy Mink, and four-time Olympic Gold Medalist Mr. Johann Olav Koss. We also recognized four Tufts alumni: the Executive Director of the Institute for International Sport at the University of Rhode Island, Dan Doyle; a Senior Producer for NBC Sports, Lisa Lax; the Associate Director for Sports Programs, Educational Initiatives and External Relations for World T.E.A.M. Sports, Michael Savicki; and the President and CEO of the Milwaukee Brewers, Wendy Selig-Prieb.